At one point it seemed like they were putting up a belt every time Cotto fought. I wouldn't try and hang my hat on his "championships." The guy is a great fighter but this Trout type stuff would have come to him much much sooner in his career had it not been for Bobby Arum and Brucey Trampler.

Top Rank matched Cotto pretty tough throughout his career...

vacant titles

Cotto vs Quintana (two young undefeated fighters with tremendous upsides... it was a pick em fight to most)

those vacant titles are far greater than beating some paper champion... the only one you can **** on is jennings... and even still the guy had only been beaten once...

Jennings had never fought at world class prior to facing Cotto. which is fitting, because he didn't belong at world class. he's a UK domestic/EBU level fighter.

Pinto went on to do nothing! the majority of 'champions' in boxing are paper champions. the belts are nothing more than bargaining chips - we find out who the true champions are because they always rise to the top of the alphabet morass and establish themselves either as elite fighters or divisional rulers (or both). i can think of many paper champions in recent history who would've been more creditable wins for whoever beat them than a win over Pinto.

Quintana went on to be a decent paper champion himself. that's a good win. it's not worthy of comparison to a win over the Vargas Tito fought, though.

Cotto himself was only ever a paper champion, btw. he only ever won titles against paper champion type fighters (Pinto, Quintana, Jennings, Foreman), never established himself as the ruler of a division and never established himself as a truly elite fighter (when the acid test came, he failed, losing badly to a truly elite fighter a year or so after being beaten down by a fighter who was considered less than elite) - and, no, winning a close one with a faded Mosley does not make you elite.

edit: i do give credit to Cotto for two solid runs defending paper titles at 140 and 147. he has some creditable defences on his CV from those periods. but he never cleared those divisions or established himself at the top of the heap.

Cotto himself was only ever a paper champion, btw. he only ever won titles against paper champion type fighters (Pinto, Quintana, Jennings, Foreman), never established himself as the ruler of a division and never established himself as a truly elite fighter (when the acid test came, he failed, losing badly to a truly elite fighter a year or so after being beaten down by a fighter who was considered less than elite) - and, no, winning a close one with a faded Mosley does not make you elite.

edit: i do give credit to Cotto for two solid runs defending paper titles at 140 and 147. he has some creditable defences on his CV from those periods. but he never cleared those divisions or established himself at the top of the heap.

Cotto himself was only ever a paper champion, btw. he only ever won titles against paper champion type fighters (Pinto, Quintana, Jennings, Foreman), never established himself as the ruler of a division and never established himself as a truly elite fighter (when the acid test came, he failed, losing badly to a truly elite fighter a year or so after being beaten down by a fighter who was considered less than elite) - and, no, winning a close one with a faded Mosley does not make you elite.

edit: i do give credit to Cotto for two solid runs defending paper titles at 140 and 147. he has some creditable defences on his CV from those periods. but he never cleared those divisions or established himself at the top of the heap.

your stupidity holds no bounds. A paper champion?... you continue to discredit yourself...